


When Sam Met Tony

by MonPetitTresor



Series: Family Don't End With Blood [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, First Meetings, Ghosts, Making Friends, Stanford, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-13 01:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11174139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonPetitTresor/pseuds/MonPetitTresor
Summary: A start to my series, showing how Sam and Tony first met





	When Sam Met Tony

**Author's Note:**

> This story isn't as detailed as some of the others are going to be. It's just laying out how these two met. I know it feels quick and I'm sorry about that. But I just needed to set up the two of them becoming friends. Hopefully, you'll like the other stories better :)

Though Sam Winchester had given up the hunting life to go to college – along with quite a few other things, his family included – that didn't mean that he became blind and ignorant to the supernatural world around him. Despite what his father seemed to think, he wasn't planning on just _not_ being a hunter. It was too much a part of Sam's life – too much a part of who he was. Though he didn't want to be a full-time hunter, there was no way he could sit back and do nothing when he knew that there was something happening right near him. It just wasn’t in him. So, when something happened close to home, too close for Sam to ignore, he took care of it.

It only happened twice during his first year at Stanford. The first had been a rather simple salt-and-burn that took him one day to figure out and take care of.

The second case was another ghost, only this one was a little more complicated. It was one that would’ve been a lot easier with his brother by his side helping him. Still, Sam managed, and afterwards he found himself just a little grateful for it, because during that case Sam ended up meeting one of the strangest people he'd ever known – someone who would come to mean the world to him. The fact that the person he ended up meeting was none other than Tony Stark, the man behind the foundation that had made it capable for Sam to be here at Stanford to begin with, just made everything all the more complicated, and all the weirder, which was saying a lot considering the life Sam had lived so far.

Tony was visiting the college to give a few guest lectures and do some scholarship work, it would seem, and Sam had been interested enough to go and watch the lectures but not a whole lot more than that. He hadn’t expected to see the man again. He definitely hadn’t expected to catch word of a damn _vengeful spirit_ in Palo Alto – or to rescue Tony from it.

It was just his luck that it wasn’t a simple, easy to pass of rescue, either. It wasn’t one of those things that he’d learned over the years how to lie and find a way to pass off as something else. And even though Mr. Stark looked like he was drinking, it didn’t seem to appear that he was drunk enough to think he was hallucinating the ghost that attacked him, pinning him to his bed and strangling him, or the guy that came in and made it vanish with a swing of _salt_ of all things.

Sam – under the guise of a room service attendant, with a tray of food and plenty of salt – took in the stunned look on the face of the last man he’d expected to see and fought to keep his swearing on the inside. Right now, there wasn’t time for it. He needed to finish what he was here for, which was getting this man out of the room and somewhere safe. Later, he could curse himself for not taking the time to realize that the room where all the EMF was coming from was the one that Tony-freaking-Stark was using.

Gathering his composure, Sam moved forward and reached a hand out to grasp Tony’s arm. “I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but I don't have time to explain things. We need to move, now.” Thankfully, the man responded by grabbing his arm back and letting himself get pulled up to his feet. Sam nodded his head and went back to scanning the room to make sure the ghost didn't come back. “I don't know how much time we have, but we need to get out of here before it comes back.”

“What was that?” Tony demanded, voice hoarse and just a tiny bit shaky. The rest of him was steady, though, something that very few people managed after something like this. Sam admired that kind of strength.

“I'll explain it all when we're somewhere safe, I promise. Right now, I need you to stick close to me.”

Whether it was the presence of the salt that Sam still held, or something else that held the spirit off, they made it out the door easily enough. Once they were in the hall, Tony seemed to sigh out his relief but Sam knew better. They weren't out of the clear yet. Not until they managed to make it actually out of the hotel. He kept Tony close to him and headed for the stairs. The last thing he wanted to do was risk an elevator, which was exactly what he told Tony when the man asked, “Why are we taking the stairs?”

“Ghosts are capable of messing with quite a few things – elevators included. Do you really want to be inside one when it decides it wants to make it stop working?”

His harsh words had Tony paling and had Sam wanting to wince. Since when had he begun to sound like his brother? Usually Dean was the blunt one and Sam was the one that played the more understanding part on the job. At least Tony didn’t seem all that bothered by it. He followed Sam down the stairs, sticking as close as he'd been warned, and with every step he seemed to find himself more and more. He was apparently less afraid of speaking now. The fear of being strangled by something he couldn't see wasn't enough to keep him down for long. It was a strength that Sam would later admire in many ways.

“You're telling me that was a ghost back there?” Tony demanded as they went down another flight of stairs. “But ghosts aren't real!”

 _If I had a nickel for every time someone said that,_ Sam thought to himself, mentally rolling his eyes. On the outside, he kept himself calm and his voice steady and reasonable. “I promise you, the thing that was choking you back there was very real, Mr. Stark, and if we don't get out of here quickly it's going to prove to you just how real it is.”

“Is it going to go after someone else?”

That was a valid question. One that Sam wasn't entirely sure on. “I doubt it. This type of ghost tends to stick to a certain type of person.” He really hoped that was the case, at least. Sometimes things didn't always go according to plan. The idea of saving Tony just to doom someone else made the young college student feel ill. He knew that he couldn't save everyone. logically, he knew that. Emotionally, it had always been one of the hardest parts of the job. He was never good at accepting that they couldn’t save everyone. It just felt wrong to him.

In no time, the two men had made their way downstairs. Sam didn't bother taking them to the lobby. He hadn't gotten in that way. The uniform he had on, plus Tony's celebrity status, made it much easier for them to slip back through the service halls and towards the kitchen. Through there, they'd be able to exit out to an alley where Sam's car was waiting for him. Once he got Tony away from here he'd be able to figure out what it was he needed to do next.

Doing a little recon had been his main plan for tonight. Trying to find where the EMF was coming from, see if he could isolate an area of the hotel, and then use that to help him pinpoint who it was that had died at the hotel that might be the one haunting it now. Hotels usually had a few deaths in them. He needed to be sure which one it was before he went digging up graves.

That had been his original plan. Now he had Tony following him around, firmly insisting that he was coming with him, and what else could Sam do but agree?

* * *

The older man stuck to him like glue after that. Sam took them to the motel room he’d gotten earlier, a place he knew he could secure and do his work inside of without alerting his roommate Brady about anything that was going on. The whole drive over Tony peppered him with questions about the different types of ghosts that existed and what it was that made Sam so sure this one was a ‘vengeful spirit’. Sam found himself giving more in-depth explanation for things than he’d ever given to anyone anymore. It was hard to resist Tony’s growing enthusiasm.

Not only did Tony follow him, he insisted on helping Sam research, even offering up his AI to help them find out who the spirit was. “I’ve got no doubt you’re smart, Big Guy.” Tony told him, looking over the information Sam had spread out on the table in the motel room. His lip curled at the room itself, but his eyes shone a bit while they looked at the information. “In fact, I’m gonna go ahead and say you’re pretty damn smart, and that’s a lot coming from me. But trust me – not even I can compete with JARVIS.”

He wasn’t wrong. It took JARVIS just an hour to do what probably would’ve otherwise taken Sam hours and hours to do. Not only did he find out the name of the woman – Caroline Affy – he also, at Sam’s request, found out where she was buried.

“Why do you need to know that?” Tony asked him immediately.

How the hell had he gotten stuck playing teacher here? Sam eyed the other man and tried not to sigh. This probably wasn’t going to go over well. “Because the only way to get rid of a ghost is to salt and burn their bones, or if they’ve been cremated, whatever it is they’ve latched on to.”

It was no surprise when Tony pulled a disgusted look. “That’s gross.” Almost instantly afterwards, he was grinning, and Sam had to wonder if there was something wrong with him. “I’ve never gotten in trouble for grave desecration before.”

To Sam’s continuing shock, he had someone with him that night to help play lookout while he dug out the grave and salted-and-burned Caroline’s bones. Someone who kept up a running commentary that seemed to be idle speculation on how to account for the supernatural with science. It wasn’t quite the same as having Dean there watching his back or helping him. Still, it was kind of nice not to do it alone.

* * *

Afterwards, the two had gone back to Tony’s hotel room where Tony had proceeded to get him drunk as a thank you for saving his life. The alcohol made it a bit easier for Sam to give the ‘supernatural stuff is real’ speech. The fact that Tony had been extremely interested and had peppered him with questions, not accusations, had made it easier, and Sam had found himself relaxing the more that they talked and the more that they drank.

“I was raised in the life.” Sam said, leaning back on the couch and kicking his feet up onto the table. The words ached, just as they always did, though the alcohol kept a nice numbness at the edges that kept it from getting too bad. “A… a demon killed my mom when I was six months old. My Dad hit the road not long after that and my brother and I with him.”

Tony gaped at him. “You were a baby.”

Shrugging, Sam took another drink. “I never really knew any different than the road. That was just how it was for me, going from motel to motel, town to town. I didn’t find out about what it really was that Dad did until I was like, ten.”

Tony didn’t seem all that impressed by that. Nor was he impressed when he found out that John had kicked Sam out just because he wanted to get an education.

“You’re kidding me?” The way that Tony was staring at him in shock, like he really couldn’t believe it, actually made the hunter feel a bit better. Like maybe he wasn’t so wrong for wanting to get away and do something different. When Sam shook his head, Tony flopped back in his chair and rolled his eyes. “That’s stupid. You’re obviously smart if you got here on a scholarship. You’d think a parent would be _proud_ of something like that.”

Sam just shrugged again. “Not in my family.”

That resulted in a rant about fathers and their stupid expectations that Sam sort of tuned out.

What came after that, well, Sam was never quite sure. It all blurred together. He only knew that when he woke up in the morning, Tony was gone – checked out of the hotel, he found out – but there was a new number in his cheap little burner phone and a text that told him ‘Sorry, important meeting, had to jet. Send a message my way if you ever need anything’. Seeing that text had him snorting out a laugh. Dean would never believe that he had _Tony Stark’s_ phone number.

Dragging himself to his feet, and cursing the stupidity of getting _this_ drunk with anyone, Sam decided that it wouldn’t cause any harm to at least take advantage of the bathroom here and get a quick shower before heading out. Granted, he was going to have to get back in his clothes from last night, but at least he could get the rest of the dirt off his skin as well as the scent of alcohol that felt like it was just seeping from his pores.

After a quick shower, Sam slipped out of the hotel, making sure to not be seen as he left. He went home with the mindset that the whole case had been strange - _Tony_ had been strange - but it was over now and they likely weren’t going to ever see one another again. He pushed it to the back of his mind with every intention of forgetting about it.

* * *

Really, he should’ve known better. What little he got to know about Tony as a person that night should’ve told him clearly that the man wasn’t someone who was going to just let all of this go. He was far too interested in what Sam did and the whole supernatural world. It wasn’t even three days later that Sam got his first text from the man while sitting in  - what would soon become the first of many.

_So how would a guy go about SPN proofing their home? - Big T_

It took a second for Sam to understand the ‘SPN’ bit. When he did, he smiled, though he was furrowing his brow by the time he read wht Tony’s name was in his phone. That was what Tony had put it under originally and Sam had already changed it just to ‘T’. How on earth had it gotten back to ‘Big T’?

_Salt and iron are good deterrents. Salt the windows and doors. - SW_

_Have you been hacking my phone? - SW_

He focused back on his lessons and tried to wait patiently for a reply from Tony. If the man was serious about warding his home, maybe Sam could place a call in to Bobby. He would know better how to ward a personal residence instead of just a motel room.

A minute later Sam’s phone was buzzing in his hand again. He used his crossed legs as cover and checked the messages that came in, one right after another.

_How on earth do you explain salt on all your windows and doors? – Big T_

_Really, Sasquatch? You’re asking ME if I hacked your phone? – Big T_

_This is stupid – Big T_

_What are you doing summer break? – Big T_

Sam’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. He cast a quick look up at his instructor and then back down at his phone.

_Why on earth do you want to know? – SW_

The answer came in faster than Sam anticipated.

_You ask the dumbest questions for a smart kid – Big T_

_If I’m going to SPN proof my house I’m going to have it done by a pro. Don’t make any summer plans – Big T_

And that was how, despite any protests that Sam tried to lodge over the next few weeks, he found himself spending a summer at Tony’s house helping him take care of warding the entire house while also training JARVIS to recognize the EMF that ghosts put out. Sam went there with a list of things he’d gotten from Bobby on how to ward a place and he made sure that they were all put in Tony’s home by the time he left.

Sam had started this case mostly to keep the town he was in safe and keep any other hunters from having to show up. But he walked away from it with a friendship that would last him a lifetime.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Salt lines? Why?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12440862) by [cantorahagedoorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cantorahagedoorn/pseuds/cantorahagedoorn)




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